Oliver Hudson says he sometimes 'felt unprotected' growing up with mother Goldie Hawn

Parents aren’t perfect, and Oliver Hudson has learned to see his folks in a different light.

Hudson, son of actors Bill Hudson and Goldie Hawn, opened up about his upbringing with Hawn during an appearance on the “Sibling Revelry” podcast published March 18. Hudson co-hosts the podcast with sister Kate Hudson.

During a conversation with married athletes Bode Miller and Morgan Beck, “The Cleaning Lady” star said he was prompted to reflect on his childhood relationship with his parents after completing a course at the Hoffman Institute. The institute centers on the Hoffman Process, a weeklong psychological retreat that aims to help individuals “identify negative behaviors, moods, and ways of thinking that developed unconsciously and were conditioned in childhood,” per the Hoffman Institute’s official website.

"It’s an incredible week of enlightenment on who your parents were (and) are," Hudson said. "The forgiveness and the compassion that you feel towards them at the end of this process is unbelievable. Because then you realize that they’re only repeating the (stuff) that they went through with their parents."

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Oliver Hudson says he ‘felt unprotected’ during childhood with Goldie Hawn

Hudson said that while he expected his conversations during the retreat to focus on his relationship with estranged father Bill Hudson, he was surprised to discover that the bulk of his childhood “trauma" stemmed from his experiences with Hawn, who he described as his "primary caregiver."

"I felt unprotected at times," Hudson said. "She would be working and away, or she had new boyfriends that I didn’t really like. She would be living her life, and she was an amazing mother."

Hawn and Bill Hudson were married from 1976-1982. Hawn went on to have a decadeslong romance with fellow actor Kurt Russell.

"This was my own perception as a child who didn’t have a dad and who needed her to be there, and she just wasn’t sometimes,” Hudson continued. “And she came (up) far more than even my dad who wasn’t there."

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With regard to his father, Hudson said learning to empathize with Bill’s turbulent childhood helped him shift his outlook on their father-son dynamic. "His dad left him when he was 5 years old in the middle of the night," he said. "My dad didn't do exactly that, but essentially he bailed."

"When I was with him, it was incredible," Oliver said. "He paid attention to me. We played football. We played basketball. We were on the beach. He taught me how to fish. He was so present, but he just was never there."